“Sun Tan City and Argo Networks have had a partnership in place for nearly a decade. They were a technology support partner for Sun Tan City when we had just 12 salons in 2 states, and they are equally valued today in supporting our 200+ salons across the US. Mike and his IT staff are highly knowledgeable of our Indoor Tanning industry – both from a business point of view and most importantly, the technology needed to support its growth.”

When you’re running a business with multiple locations, network uptime and data analysis are essential to successful operations.

Dolphin Beach Tan is a tanning salon chain with five locations in Columbus. Brandon LeBay, who has been managing the salons for 15 years, typically relied on a local IT company to manage his technology.

Even with outsourcing the IT functions, each location frequently experienced network outages that negatively impacted productivity and sales. However, that all changed when Dolphin Beach Tan partnered with Argo Networks.

Managed Services Solved Down-time Problems

“They solved our network issue, which in turn has a great impact on my day-to-day operations. I don’t even worry about my computers or my network on a daily basis. And their service – everything gets done that day. It’s one call and, in an hour, they’ll have someone remote in and have the issue resolved,” LeBay explained.

VPN connections using SonicWALLs, to ensure secure traffic between the store locations and the server location.

Management of computers and assistance whenever issues arise.

Functioning as a point of contact when Internet connectivity issues occur and interfacing with the service provider when necessary.

Providing security protection: Argo Networks will remove viruses and malware from the computers.

Managing new computers, including set up of software and integration into existing systems.

Salon360 Enhances Performance

With the implementation of Argo Networks’ Salon360 service, Dolphin Beach Tan enjoyed a spike in sales across their locations ranging from five to seven percent. Salon360 takes all the pertinent data at each site and aggregates it into a manageable dashboard, which helps employees track sales and allows managers to track overall staff performance.

“It’s something that my employees can monitor daily: their sales, their store parameters that we ask them to hit…it’s all in one view on Salon360. Everything is right there and the employees absolutely love it,” LeBay said.

Custom Solutions with Text Ripple

Text Ripple is a third-party marketing service that allows businesses to push promotional messages directly to customers’ mobile phones via SMS. Dolphin Beach Tan used this service prior to working with Argo Networks, but the previous software solution presented problems.

Their previous integration synced to Text Ripple in the middle of the night, causing Dolphin Beach Text Club members to receive disruptive text messages at midnight or 1 A.M.

“I went to Alice at Argo and Hans at Text Ripple and within two weeks it was resolved. In turn, I grew my Text Club number database,” LeBay explained.

By subscribing to Argo’s Salon360 service, Dolphin Beach Tan was able to customize integration between the different systems and eliminate customer aggravation.

Solutions

Managed Services

Salon360

Custom Software Integration

Customer Quote

“They’re industry specific, but not only that, they’re good at what they do. They understand how a network has to be set up. They understand from Salon360 the information business owners need to run their business. They’re very accommodating, they’re on the ball.”– Brandon L, Dolphin Beach Tan, Columbus, OH

In 1987, At The Beach tanning salon first opened its doors in Oklahoma City. Twenty-seven years and 77 stores in three different states later, times and technology needs have changed.

Before working with Argo Networks, At The Beach had a string of on-staff IT professionals. However, the logistics of the locations in three different states and the ever-growing number of stores proved to be burden the IT staff and manager Judson Kinkade could no longer handle.

Freeing At The Beach Staff

Argo Networks quickly went to work to set up a solid and secure remote access system to each store's network. The need to send an IT professional onsite and bear the cost and burden of lost time were gone. Using this new structure, problems at any given time could quickly be accessed remotely and resolved.

"Having someone else worry about the IT part of it and the systems part of it and the servers and all of that just takes a huge amount of time off my desk," said Kinkade.

He shared that there was no way he'd be able to oversee At The Beach's growth from 25 stores, when they first engaged with Argo Networks, to its all-time high of 77 without their help.

Customized Reporting

Not only has Argo Networks cut down on staff management time through outsourcing At The Beach's IT department, but it consistently creates custom reports for Kinkade and his staff to effectively assess investments of employee time and scheduling.

"The Labor Saver report projects the peak hours and recommends additional scheduling. Then, at the end of the week we can compare the projections to reality. It really helps us control our labor hours from a corporate level without having to run 75-80 reports for each store and compare it to schedules," Kinkade explained.

Argo Networks continues to engineer and improve At The Beach's custom reports to allow corporate to effectively assess the state of each store, from knowing which staff member does what and for how long to which stores don't open on time. This data gives the corporate team the power to make business decisions that positively impact each store's success and growth.

According to Kinkade, the reporting "makes it easier for the district managers to hold their people accountable and to deal with the situation at a store level without requiring that the CEO or COO get involved. The district managers can correct the issue before the rest of us even get into the office. That's improved what the corporate office has to watch and monitor."

Solutions

Custom app development

Custom reporting

Server hosting and support

Customer Quote

"If I needed a change [in reports], or needed something new created, we used to contact the contract programmer and wait forever for it or they'd say no, it wasn't possible. Argo Networks has never told me no; they either do it or come up with a different solution and my turnaround on customized reporting is pretty quick." – Judson Kinkade

Salon 360 – The Salon 360 reporting is great for At The Beach because it is customized to our metrics and our goals. It shows us the districts at a glance, but then also lets us drill down and see the real picture of what is happening in the stores with our individual employees. Service – We tried having an IT person on staff, but it just got impossible for one person to be everywhere all the time. Having Argo-Networks run that for us was a seamless transition from having an on staff person, and we get better service now. Anyone can call in with a computer problem and get someone looking at it right away. Having one go to number for anything computer related really is the only solution for a company with a growth plan.

What have you liked best about Salon 360 for your salons? It has enabled them to become more polished and well rounded in all areas of Salon 360. On a daily basis they are able to focus on any area that they are weak in.

What new feature (if any) would you like to see tracked? None

Where has Salon 360 had the most impact in your market ? Vips and being able to keep track of them. It has definitely promoted great competition.

Which ‘item’ that Salon 360 tracks (ADPM / NMCP, MEMS/ MEMS Bonus/ Jewel Bonus, etc.) has had the most impact on your Managers and Salon staffs? I would have to say that all areas of Salon 360 has had the most impact on each Manager and staff members. It has allowed them to become even better than they already were:-0

The fact I can see where I am live for sales projections, I never have to wonder where I am on any single parameter.

I love giving my staff a tailored view that fits JUST our company and was made for us by Argo. I didn't get the standard cookie cutter option. Argo tailored it just for us. This means that my staff are WAY more interested in looking at it and compete to bring up their sales stats and do better.

Getting a text on my phone when my store doesn't open.

Beside Salon 360 working with Argo in general on Salon 360...any suggestion I have or something I want added they get right on trying to improve it. Most companies take months to bring out something new and exciting, Argo takes weeks, (if that) to implement new great ideas.